They simply did what everyone else refused to do, get out of their own way.

TF2 released in 2007

Being a private company has allowed Valve to take some really big swings. Steam Deck is paying off handsomely, but it came after the relative failure of the Steam Controller, Steam Link and Steam Machines. With their software business stable, they can allow themselves to take big risks on the hardware side, learn what does and doesn't work, then try again. At a publically traded company, CEO Gabe Newell probably gets forced out long before they get to the Steam Deck.

And also not be backed by venture capital firms expecting to make infinite profits. Private or Public, if the company shareholder's only goal is to continue to receive 10% gains on their investment after already making back 20x their principal, they'll squeeze the company for all it's worth.

• The 30% percent cut, stealing money from devs

Sigh. Here we go again. I'll just copy one of my older comments about that attitude.

Steam is not a parasitic middle man, it is a collection of services that would have to be provisioned and operated by the developer otherwise. The 30% cut pays for:

• A massive infrastructure to store and deliver the game and its updates, worldwide, and at an acceptable bandwidth that Valve operates
• A storefront that enables monetizing the game
• The audience and discoverability that would not exist otherwise
• The Steam API, achievements, cloud saves
• The client itself, content management, validation, and Linux compatibility tools
• Network and operational security
• Also keep in mind that Steam and its services are operated by experts. A game developer would have to hire the experts or get training.

If the revenue from the cut exceeds the operational costs: it's called profitability, not theft. The world doesn't run on good vibes.

The 30% percent cut, stealing money from devs

This is a pretty spicy take. Let's consider two possibilities:

1. Game devs choose to distribute independently, and sell their game for $20. They sell 100,000 copies and make $2 million in revenue, and keep the entire $2 million.

2. Game devs choose to distribute via Steam, promote it with a 50% off sale, it goes to the Steam front page, sells 500,000 copies at only $10 each, for a total $5 million in revenue. Steam takes $1.5 million and the devs take $3.5 million.

In scenario 2 the devs make 75% more than in scenario 1. Did Valve steal from the game devs?

I didn’t knew about he claiming to be a libertarian. Rothbard must be turning over in his grave.

A steam account being un-inheritable, making you defacto a tenant of your games

Can’t you just give your kids your steam password ? How would they notice ?

A steam account being un-inheritable, making you defacto a tenant of your games

This is unenforceable under US Law

Not to mention his insane Porsche collection, yeah he's just another billionaire

Valve ruined my favourite game (dota) by flooding the game with ridiculous cosmetics that even change particle effects with no way to disable any of this

Ancient Chinese philosophy has an answer for everything man

Yeah, Apple was able to fall on their faces with the Lisa but still get to the Macintosh and greatness.

Gaben has done lots of awesome shit. I fear what valve will become when he's gone.

Fun fact many don't know, Gabe helped create the first versions of Windows and claims he learned more at Microsoft than he ever did elsewhere (at the time). So in a way, he's transcended Windows, vs ripping it apart.

Guy owns how many yachts? I think Gabe sucks personally.